Sugar & Shadows
(Maplewood, Book 3)
Daphne Elliot
August 31, 2026
🔥Enemies to Lovers
🍂Accidental Pregnancy
🔥Small Town
🍂Acts of Service
🔥He Falls Hard
🍂Found Family
🔥Forced Proximity
🍂One Bed
🔥Grumpy x Grumpy
Rule #1: Never work with your enemy.
Rule #2: Definitely don’t sleep with him either.
Rule #3: Never get emotionally invested in your quirky small hometown.
Unfortunately, I’ve broken all three rules…
When a career-ending scandal sends me back to Maplewood, Vermont, I need to lay low and figure out my next steps. Instead, I find my hometown in crisis. The local economy is struggling, the beloved Maple Festival has been stolen by a rival town, and I’m forced to work side by side with Mayor Gabriel Harding, my childhood rival and the town’s optimistic hometown hero.
Helping Gabe save Maplewood should be simple. I’m a political strategist. He’s a small-town mayor. Together, we’re supposed to save Maplewood.
The problem? Gabe refuses to see me as the villain I think I am. Every time I push him away, he fights harder for me, for this town, and for the future neither of us imagined. Somewhere between arguing over town budgets, getting snowed in together, and one ill-advised one-night-stand, our enemies-to-lovers rivalry turns into an unexpected pregnancy.
Apparently, saving a small town requires public humiliation, emotional vulnerability, forced proximity … and an alarming amount of maple syrup.
As I fight to bring the Maple Festival back to town, I uncover a dangerous corporate conspiracy, become the target of powerful enemies, and discover someone wants Maplewood to fail.
Now we’re fighting for our town, our future and the family we never saw coming.
Because falling for my enemy was never part of the plan.
Neither was becoming a family.
Available in KU: https://a.co/d/00KpWMqu
Sugar & Shadows: An Enemies to Lovers Romance by Daphne Elliot
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
ALC/ARC REVIEW
I am SO in love with Sabrina, Gabe, their romance, and this entire story, that I am all aflutter! I feel like a kid on a sugar high every time I think about this story! And the audio, STOP IT … Outrageously fantastic and a delight to have in my ears for what seemed like NO TIME AT ALL! You know what also makes my heart go pitter-patter? This series is exponentially better as each story unfolds! I AM HERE FOR ALL OF IT! Honestly, Daphne is some kind of wizard and I want to hug her!
I’m gonna talk a little bit about that audio experience before I talk about the story because I honestly think this is Stella & Brandon’s best work yet, that I have listened to in my audio era. Stella just hit the mark on every feeling, reaction and action Sabrina went thru and I could truly feel the growth that Sabrina underwent throughout every step of this story. It was an outstanding performance. And Brandon! Man, he did not miss a single beat with Gabe! Every “mask” that Gabe had to wear was perfectly depicted in Brandon’s performance and it was just spectacular. My audio loving heart had the best time for the 11 hours it spent basking in this story and these narrators were a huge part of that enjoyment.
👏👏HUGE round of applause for ALL👏👏
About this story … What can I say, it hit all my pulse points! I love the growth as characters and as a couple that Sabrina and Gabe underwent. Every step was purposeful to the story, and it left a huge smile on my face. Their story had the best kind of flirty tension that led to some seriously LOL inducing banter! Their story showcased found family perfectly and the small-town vibe was vibing in the best way! GAH, I really loved these two and they are my favorite thus far in this series but if Daphne keeps this wizardry up, they might just jump a peg when Logan enters the picture …. Whaaaaaaaaaaat?!
Read this story or listen to it, or do both! Either way, you are going to enjoy the heck out of it and it will be worth every minute of your time. And also, just read all of Daphne’s stories while you’re at it (or listen or both LOL) because she honestly is one of the most reliable (IYKYK) authors I know!
Meet Daphne Elliot:
In High School, Daphne Elliot was voted “most likely to become a romance novelist.” After spending the last decade as a corporate lawyer, she has finally embraced her destiny. Her small town steamy novels are filled with flirty banter, sexy hijinks, and lots and lots of heart.
Daphne is a coffee-drinking, hot-sauce loving introvert who spends all her free time in her garden. She lives on a small farm in New England with her husband, two kids, two dogs, twelve backyard chickens and a hive of Italian honeybees.
Keep in touch with Daphne by subscribing to her newsletter here: http://daphneelliot.com/join-newsletter
Connect with Daphne Elliot: https://linktr.ee/daphneelliot
OMGReads Blog 